Brand new quality phones with a removable battery?

[rh-evolution]

I’ve been researching for awhile for a phone along the same lines as what you are looking for, and this is about the best thing that I’ve found aside from Purism’s Librem 5:

https://esolutions.shop/shop/murena-teracube-2e-emerald-na/

My recommendation would be to avoid GrapheneOS/Google Pixel. While it is very functional and I was initially impressed by it, I don’t personally believe Google would sell a truly privacy respecting device, though the Graphene project seems to be outstanding.

[ookhoi]

@junkyarddog

I was considering a Pixel 5 because based on what I have seen, it has the best balance of a good camera and battery life. But, my main issue is that so many phones these days do not have a removable battery.

[…]

Ideally, I’d like a phone I can run LineageOS on. Any other AOSP type OS is alright as long as it is trustworthy.

Late to the party but would like to add my two cents.

Last weekend I’ve replaced my Kyocera Torque (Android 4.4) which has been switched on 24/7 since may 2016. It started to have mobile network connection issues. I am very impressed with the seven-year lifespan of the non-removable battery.

The Kyocera is replaced with a spare Motorola Moto X 2014 bought november 2016. I’ve installed LineageOS 18 on it (Android 11) and am much impressed with the performance on this old device.

I was a bit worried about the battery life of the Moto (seems oke though) so already started to look for a new replacement supported by LineageOS. The Pixel 5 seemed the best choice to me as well as it is small and new enough to still be available in stores.

So, I would not worry too much about the non-removable battery from a ‘respected’ phone brand as it seems they have a fairly good lifespan.

My choice for a phone with a removable battery would be the Nokia C2 2nd edition but that will not be supported by LineageOS (and not have a decent camera).

[amosbatto]

@Bitshifter

For the real privacy nerds (recommended by Edward Snowden himself) there is also a Build of GrapheneOS available for the Fairphone.

I looked for the build and couldn’t find it, but I did find this thread on the GrapheneOS forum saying that the Fairphone 4 is too insecure to bother porting to it.

CalyxOS, however, has builds available for the Fairphone 4 and two OnePlus models. I’m glad to see CalyxOS finally moving outside of Google Pixels.

[irvinewade]

@ookhoi

So, I would not worry too much about the non-removable battery from a ‘respected’ phone brand as it seems they have a fairly good lifespan.

But then you get nasty things like Apple making iOS slow the CPU in order to paper over the declining battery performance i.e. you still get the same number of hours (days) between charges but the phone runs more slowly in 2022 as compared with 2016.